Staff involved in this project comes from the Architecture, Climate and Environment Research Group at the Univeristy of Nottingham. The work undertaken by the group is predominantly related to mitigating the impacts of, and adapting to, climate change, reducing energy use in the built environment and enhancing comfort, productivity and wellbeing of building users. Collaboration with partners in academia, the construction industry and with CSET at the University’s Ningbo Campus underpins much of this group’s work. Progress is evidenced by a growth in funding from the Research Councils, TSB, EU (incl. Marie Curie), Royal Society, Carbon Trust, DECC, and Industry.

Group members have been involved since 2008 in various projects. The group has also received numerous Awards (e.g. Rushlight, UK Engineer Technology and Innovation), two new technology transfer licences and three new patents. A highlight is the £2.5M Creative Energy Homes project: a key resource to study micro-smart grids, energy storage, demand-side management and occupants’ acceptance of innovative technologies. The Creative Energy Homes is yielding results that inform both national policy and high quality research outputs, recognised recently through the ICE’s Trevithick Prize. The Homes will available for use in this project, as will the group’s state of the art laboratory facilities.

Data on the air tightness of buildings, obtained at the low pressures typically found in infiltration, will be obtained from the Univeristy of Nottingham’s novel ‘pulse technique’ and used to compare with designed levels. It will therefore help to reduce the performance gap between design and commissioning by enabling quick checks and remediation to be carried out during the construction process. The technique, which is quicker, cheaper, more portable and more accurate than the conventional blower door technique will provide a simple device that can be operated by construction workers on site. The output will be available directly on the device itself and exportable for integration with the smart phone app developed for this project by VRM.